Every year, as Christmas approaches, panic can start to set in amongst teachers as the pressure to have your classroom holiday-ready begins. But don’t worry, there are a lot of things you can do in your classroom to get into the holiday spirit. Whether it’s getting into a jolly mood yourself or getting the students excited about the upcoming holiday, these Christmas bulletin board ideas will have you spreading festive cheer in no time!
Table of Contents
- What makes a good Christmas Bulletin Board?
- Christmas Bulletin Board Examples
- Christmas Bulletin Board FAQs
- Final Thoughts
What makes a good Christmas Bulletin Board?
A good Christmas bulletin board should help your class get into the festive spirit, while hopefully achieving educational progress at the same time. Whether promoting inclusion, a growth mindset, or reading, the best bulletin boards will allow children to learn while being visually appealing and entertaining at the same time.
A good bulletin board should also be easy for you as the teacher to put together. Having the students create the majority of the board frees up more time for you to concentrate on planning great festive-themed lessons.
Christmas Bulletin Board Examples
Gingerbread House
A gingerbread house bulletin board is a great way to get your class into the Christmas spirit. If you are feeling adventurous, and have the facility, you could couple it with a baking lesson where they make some gingerbread men. If not, a craft session where they create a paper version will be just as good!
Elf Hall Monitor
If your students are participating in Elf on the Shelf, or you want to encourage kindness during this season, this elf bulletin board is perfect for you! The giant elf can keep an eye on the corridors and report back to the teachers if any students are showing less-than-perfect behavior throughout the day!
Oh Deer
Teachers love a good pun, and this Oh Deer Christmas bulletin board should go down well with your class! This will give you a chance to teach your students about Santa’s other, forgotten reindeer other than Rudolph as they create their own deer for the display.
Have a ball
Make your classroom decor more meaningful by incorporating a colorful set like this one based on Christmas baubles. The ornaments can display teacher-designed facts or student work to keep lessons relevant and fun.
Take An Elfie
This Christmas bulletin board works best if your classroom door has a pane of glass. Construct your giant elf on the outside of your door, leaving a space for a face to go. Your students can then stand inside the classroom, and have an `Elfie’ taken. You could then let them print their elfies to make Christmas cards for friends and family.
Nativity Scene
If you are looking for a more traditional Christmas bulletin board, a nativity scene is a great option. If your school is putting on a nativity play, your class will love recreating their parts as a bulletin board. The manger scene is the most popular option, but there are numerous options to choose from.
Rudolph In The Dark
If you are looking for a funny bulletin board this Christmas, why not do Rudolph in the Dark?! It is a very low maintenance board which will not take long to make up, and will give students a laugh as they pass by.
Our Class Is Cool
Here is a bulletin board you can leave up all winter, rather than frantically tearing it down on the last day before Christmas break. You could use any ‘cold’ animal, but penguins are likely to be a big hit with any age group.
Learning Is a Gift
A classic bulletin board that your class will love creating. Each child can make and decorate their own gift for the board, making a visually appealing centerpiece for your classroom.
Santa’s Lists
A life size Santa will be a great addition to your classroom this Christmas and the kids will enjoy helping make an extra long list. You could even challenge your class to make sure they all end up on the nice side of the list by the end of term!
Christmas Around the World
The holidays are a great time to explore the traditions of other cultures. Kids can learn about all their favorite winter celebrations, celebrate them with their family, and bring that knowledge into the classroom. This bulletin board will be a great accompaniment to your cultural lessons.
3D Snowman Door
This magnificent door display will certainly catch people’s attention as they walk past your classroom! Made mostly from styrofoam cups, you could turn it into a recycling project as well, having the class collect and clean the cups throughout the year in preparation for the big display before the holidays.
Kindness Quotes
What a great idea! A kindness advent calendar would be the perfect way to show your class the power of being kind. A whole-school bulletin board could inspire students in their efforts to become kinder and make others feel valued and appreciated. Your students can write suggestions behind the doors, encouraging others to take part in acts of kindness throughout December.
Wall of Joy
This is a great way to bring the joy of the holiday season into your classroom! This wall of joy will be sure to keep the spirits high for all your students, and it can also be used as a tool to build writing skills for younger children.
Polar Express Door
Create discussion around books in your classroom with this Polar Express bulletin board for your door.
Stockings Fireplace
Make your winter wonderland complete with this adorable Christmas fireplace. A great classroom decoration for the holiday season, and fun activity for kids to make their own stockings and hang them up on the mantle.
Olaf Bulletin Board
Olaf is one of the most popular winter-themed characters, and this bulletin board would be a perfect addition to either your classroom or the corridor outside. If you want to make a whole-school display, he could be chilling in the library or the cafeteria instead.
T’was The Night Before Christmas
This board is perfect for your Christmas classroom! Based on the classic poem ‘T’was the Night Before Christmas’, the mix of teacher and student created elements provides a great display for a Christmas holiday or winter weather unit.
Don’t Be A Grinch
Based on another literary favorite, this Grinch bulletin board promotes both Christmas and Kindness. Add quotes from the classic Dr. Seuss story to remind students that being mean is not cool!
Snowflakes Bulletin Board
This bulletin board is a great way to remind students that they are all different, but they are all special too. The idea behind this project is to get the kids to create a snowflake on their own, then glue it onto the board. Once all of their snowflakes are on display, take pictures of them to document how each one is different—and yet they’re all beautiful!
Snow Globe
With a little help from the teacher, even younger students can create their own snow globe! Use plastic plates and add glitter for a sparkling effect, or maybe some stickers. A great way to spend an afternoon working on fine motor skills, or writing skills for older children.
Don’t Feed the Reindeer
Perfect for the Christmas classroom, this reindeer door decoration is both humorous and festive. It’s sure to bring holiday cheer and brighten the halls of any school setting.
Spread Christmas Cheer
This Elf-based bulletin board is a lovely idea, especially for younger children. They can make an elf figure themselves, then attach a photo of their face to personalize it. This bulletin board will definitely spread Christmas cheer this holiday season.
He Sees You When You’re Reading
What if Santa was watching you read? Would you be motivated to stay focused? Would you keep turning the pages to see if he was still looking? We think this humorous bulletin board is such a great idea to help encourage reading throughout December!
Charlie Brown Bulletin Board
Go old-school with this Charlie Brown and Snoopy bulletin board. Even if the younger children don’t recognize the characters, it is a good reminder of what is really important during the holiday season.
Rudolph Bulletin Board
Your class will love making their own ornaments to hang from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. They can make them at the start of the holiday season, then take them home before Christmas to hang on their tree.
Handprint Christmas tree
If you don’t mind a bit of mess, this bulletin board is a great craft activity to do with younger children. Using water-based paint, the students can create smaller handprint Christmas trees in groups, or one huge whole-class tree.
The Weather Outside Is Frightful
A lovely bulletin board for the school library, or simply to encourage your class to read. Make it interactive by having the pupils create snowflakes with the name of a book they are reading written on it.
Light Up The Season
A beautiful bulletin board to encourage kindness during the holiday season. Every day, your students can take a paper light bulb from the basket and write one nice thing they did for someone else the day before. They then stick it on one of the trees, and by Christmas the whole forest will be lit up!
Christmas Bulletin Board FAQs
At Teach Simple we have 1000s of teacher-created activities for you to download and plan for your class. Our low-cost monthly subscription give you access to all of our materials, and you can download as many as you want. Have a look at our Christmas Themed Activities.
Teachers and students should work collaboratively to create bulletin boards. In order for the bulletin board to be effective, you want to have more student content than teacher content. Posting student work and photos is a great way to inspire students to continue producing more content, while allowing them to be proud of their accomplishments.
Bulletin boards are wonderful additions to any classroom, but you don’t need a lot of space for one. You can easily place your bulletin board on an outside wall, your classroom door, or use your windows if you have a large enough space. Alternatively, your class can create a display for elsewhere in the school, such as the reception are or the cafeteria
Final Thoughts
If you love Christmas and creating beautiful displays in your classroom, then you are sure to enjoy creating a Christmas bulletin board. Your whole class will benefit from the collective Christmas spirit, and with ideas for public spaces within the school as well, you will be able to spread the festive joy throughout the whole school. Remember to encourage your pupils to take their contribution home on the last day before the holidays, so that their family can enjoy it over the festive period too.
